The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day is gonna show you what happens to people who ride on its train without a ticket!

Update: I've been away from the computer all day, but it's been brought to my attention that I took the below picture at face value as an Emperor of the North image, but it is really from The Professionals, another quality Lee Marvin picture. So, apologies for the mistake, even if it was an honest one. I mean, Lee Marvin on a train... right? The picture is still cool and I'm trying to dig up another set of cool Emperor of the North images to make amends with.

How badass is Emperor of the North? Lee Marvin hits people with live chickens. Ernest Borgnine murders train-hopping bums with a twinkle in his eye that is less than sane. Directed by the great Robert Aldrich, Emperor of the North is one of the most badass men’s men movies from the ‘70s that nobody talks about.

I did my part when interviewed Ernest Borgnine, but I could devote a fansite to this movie I love it so much, so here my enthusiasm leaks into this BTS column.

Aldrich insisted on filming on a real, moving train, which is pure balls and makes all the difference in the world when you see the finished product.

That also means a great behind the scenes shot of the camera crew precariously placed on a small platform built into the steam engine as Lee Marvin holds on, probably for dear life.

The movie is out on DVD, seek it out. Trust me. In the meantime let’s look at the pic!

Once again thanks to Pat Barnett for the cool image! Click to embiggen!

If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.

is probably why it underperformed at the box office. Sounds like a quaint Merchant/Ivory fiim. Badasses on a train would have been better. Underrated film by an underrated director. This film, Flight of the Phoenix, Dirty Dozen.

I mean, Harry isn't doing shit anymore but sitting on his studio kickbacks so it's good that the other contributors actually put up material. Granted it isn't scoops or unbiased reviews, but at least it's SOMETHING.

Bustin balls the whole way (if you can stomach the unnecessary title song, and Carradine's character is [by design] a fuckin idiot). Real ass-kicking movie, very well written/directed/acted/cut, and all without the cgi spfx safety net (or 9 writers; read Chris Knopf's well-researched screenplay [see Hollywood B&P] ; he knew what the hell he was writing about).
-Then just when you think its over - POW!
What a mean, dirty-ass fight!
(SPOILERS)
I didn't see this as EMP/NORTH POLE at first release, but wondered something about the re-edit to simply EMP/NORTH:
Borgnine's last line seems tacked onto the end of the revised EMP/NORTH - could it be in the original (titled) version A#1 actually does KILL Shack by pushing him off the train with the ax -? (guy woulda probably croaked from blood loss nonetheless)
Maybe it wouldn't been "best" (in 73) to have the audience rooting for some guy who violently kills two people (and half-fried the coaly) hitching a train ride to Portland. But while there's much more to it than simply that (and of course A#1 would eventually be hunted down for murder), Shack's death is actually more important to the film than some tidied-up ending where "they'll go at it again some day" ... Its about in part (class) conflict and SURVIVAL, and probably more relevant today than when it came out in 73. (film is set during the original Depression 1933)
"You gotta chance to be a good bum. You could be a meat eater, kid - I mean people, not their garbage."
and Borgie (corners Carradine atop the caboose after all the mayhem):
"And there's no place to hide. My Brakey's cracked his neck, the hide's peeling off the Black, and the Hogger's ready for the looney bin. And all because of you. That's a pretty fair day's work for a tender-foot."
(dammit I gotta get Borgnine to write that on my NORTH POLE half sheet)
Then: "Your fights over HERE!"
Check out the supporting characters too (Sid Haig as Greasetail, Liam Dunne as Smile, Elisha Cook Jr, Harry Caesar, more)
An overlooked near-gem, with some hair-raising scenes and perhaps the best Marvin-Borgnine slugfest (certainly ax and chain-fight) in memory. (I could be wrong - but see this anyway).

Don't let nobody tell you the big boom cgi stuff ain't real or badass just cuz the "talent" is hanging in front of some blue scrn inside some studio or warehouse (waiting to break their own toes or worse).